I live fairly close to a local public high school. Unfortunately, this means I usually hear a lot of horrible, teenager/parent friendly radio hits from my house on football game nights. Tonight, they played a song I remembered from my younger days, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl3vGClF_hA, hearing it took me back. I don't mind hearing a song or two from a different era during particular stressful times.

So to anyone interested, let's have some fun with it. Post some music that was popular when you were in high school that you actually liked, or make fun of songs you hated. Post the stuff you got into that wasn't so popular. I know it was in high school that I first discovered underground hip-hop and indie rock.

Name your era (four year period) and tell me about what was going on with you and/or young people as far as music went.

This was a pivotal era for me and a lot of my peers. It was like when my peers first started downloading heavily, long before we ever thought about the consequences it was having for the music industry. In a sense it was a time when it was very easy to get into any style of music. Since we were teenagers, a lot of superficial stuff (rebellion, wanting to be different and/or wanting to fit in) weighed to some extent on a lot of the stuff people chose to get into.

On The Radio/Mainstream front:
I'm inclined to think Usher and Lil Jon's "Yeah" was perhaps the biggest hit of this period in my area (Florida). I still can't take that song in any form, including being drunk as hell at the club lol. I hate that beat so deeply.

I remember when 50 Cent's "In The Club" dropped and he officially became every high school age hip-hop fan's favorite rapper. I played the shit out of Get Rich or Die Trying and really thought he'd be a long standing, respect figure of hip-hop. I guess half of that is true lol.

I also remember when Kanye's "Gold Digger" dropped. That one I loved from the beginning and didn't mind being played at every Homecoming and Prom.

Being in the south, of course Young Jeezy and T.I. really took off and where bumped at house parties regularly. I didn't like Jeezy then 'cause "Soul Survivor" was the big one getting play and that's up there with Usher's "Yeah" for me. As for T.I., shit I still get a little hyped for "What You Know".

Underground/Personal Picks:
Hell this is the era where I discovered "Undergound hip-hop". I remember Cage's Hell's Winter really helping me through all that teenage angst. Same with a lot of Murs and Atmosphere.

Cannibal Ox opened my mind to out there hip-hop and El-P's production. Shit like this blew my mind back then http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pADgllloQg4 and showed me just how different underground and mainstream hip-hop were in that era.

Aesop Rock did the same with Labor Days (I was a couple of years late) in regards to out there lyrical styles.
A friend put me on to Ghostface Killah's Pretty Toney album. It's still my favorite (I know I'm in the minority) and I just never felt like he had the kind of energy he had on songs like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO7NeKdidEc&feature=related on any of that Fishscale and later shit.

>On The Radio/Mainstream front:
>I'm inclined to think Usher and Lil Jon's "Yeah" was perhaps
>the biggest hit of this period in my area (Florida). I still
>can't take that song in any form, including being drunk as
>hell at the club lol. I hate that beat so deeply.


>I remember when 50 Cent's "In The Club" dropped and he
>officially became every high school age hip-hop fan's favorite
>rapper. I played the shit out of Get Rich or Die Trying and
>really thought he'd be a long standing, respect figure of
>hip-hop. I guess half of that is true lol.

Ehh...I still think "In the club" was a bit bigger, but those are EASILY the two biggest hits in the last decade, especially for Rap/R&B, and there's nothing even close enough to call #3.


>Being in the south, of course Young Jeezy and T.I. really took
>off and where bumped at house parties regularly. I didn't like
>Jeezy then 'cause "Soul Survivor" was the big one getting play
>and that's up there with Usher's "Yeah" for me. As for T.I.,
>shit I still get a little hyped for "What You Know".

I didn't care for a lot of the mixtape trap Jeezy, but "Soul survivor" was sick to me. I actually didn't like "What you know" all that much back then, but a LOT of those South songs didn't hit me til around the time I graduated from FAMU in 08...like Pastor Troy "No mo play in GA"

>Underground/Personal Picks:
>Hell this is the era where I discovered "Undergound hip-hop".
>I remember Cage's Hell's Winter really helping me through all
>that teenage angst. Same with a lot of Murs and Atmosphere.

Crazy that I didn't realize Murs was big until 02 when I was in HS...I remember going to Redondo Union (Redondo Beach HS) and hearing a white girl blast it, I said "wait...that sounds TOO familiar...that's.........MURS!!!!!"

Midnight Marauders, Enter the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers, Enta Da Stage, 93 Til Infinity, Buhloone Mindstate, No Need For Alarm, Get In Where You Fit In, Doggystyle, Comin' Out Hard, The World Is Yours and 21 & Over all got play in my inner circle. that's some good shit to begin your high school years with.

I heard 36 Chambers for the first time when I was like 15 years old (2004). I was a freshman or a sophomore in high school. It sounded dope as hell to me then, but more in a distant, I see why my older cousins had Wu-tang in white out all over their backpacks kind of way. I could only imagine what it was like actually being of age in that era.

And I'm about to be out of town for the weekend. I'll contribute when I got home.

Damn I just found this post and I'm leaving the office now, but I wanna come back to this, but here's a few songs from My Freshman year. Fall 1991.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr_uHJPUlO8&ob=av2e

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRrM6tfOHds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFieSQHmQT0

I could see that Red Hot Chili Peppers song taking off back then. Seems like the kind of rock song that might even get the hip-hop crowd going.

Never heard that Tribe song, I still got some digging to do as far as that group's concerned, I'm still only really familiar with Midnight Marauders. I love the vibe. Always liked when rappers took turns delivering lines on tracks, heard some of that in this song. Funny how much those styles came back as far as fashion goes, ol' snapbacks.

Was Del popping off back then? I don't know where you're from, but was he bigger on the west coast? I got into him around Both Sides Of The Brain. I was exposed to him through skate culture, his stuff was featured in one of the Tony Hawk games, I believe number 3. They also used to run ads for his albums in stuff like Thrasher magazine. I went back to a lot of his catalog and liked it.

Good era.

for my 10th to 12th grade High School era (it ended with me in NJ for 11th and 12th).

10th Grade Bkyln NY, 1986 to 87, eh, hip hop was about Eric B. and Rakim, BDP, Salt and Pepa, Kool G Rap and Polo, Biz Markie, Public Enemy. R&B was aiight. I remember really feeling "watch out" by Patrice Rushen. Dance music was hot. I remember "Gotta see you tonight" by Barbara Roy pretty vividly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjrWItLV6nI


11th Grade NJ 87-88 (suburbia) eh. Public Enemy and EPMD were pretty big. Eric B and Rakim, BDP, etc.. I started getting into punk and what was still called New Wave, PIL "the body":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56RICywExfw


The Godfathers "birth, school, work, death":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5dcW0P75M&ob=av2e


Flesh for Lulu - "postcards from paradise"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOGV-mgVdBg


REM with their "it's the end of the world as we know it" was pretty big. On the pop side, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson were big, etc.

Belinda Carlisle was big

"Heaven is a place on earth"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGEyBeoBGM&ob=av2n

I used to hate that song......but not anymore...I always liked "Circle in the sand" though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ9NDRYguoA


The Dirty Dancing soundtrack was pretty big. "I had the time of my life" - heard that on the school bus over a lot.


12th grade NJ suburbia 88-89 rap: Big Daddy Kane, The Jungle Brothers, Audio Two, MC Lyte, Supa Lova Cee and Cassanova Rud, etc. I was really getting into Hardcore Punk, going to lot's of shows on Sundays at CBGB's in NYC (traveling back and forth from NJ was nothing):

NYHC the way it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cswdy4euWUk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmIkkTzlmtA&feature=related


I saw Token Entry quite a bit around then in NYC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UAyoMrRXEI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpRiYGN61iA


New Jack swing was pretty big around this time Keith Sweat, Al B Sure, Johnny Kemp. I still kinda liked R&B


Aleese Simmons - "I want to be your lover"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzvnJZv35Go

so these are the kinds of songs I only have movies and family photos as a reference point haha.

Sounds like a good era, I just heard PIL for the first time a couple of weeks ago, interesting sound. I'm not big on the punk people my age were into, mostly the 90's to early 2000's kind of punk. I don't know if they qualify as post-punk, or just straight up rock or what, but I like what I hear.

Being a part of that NYC hardcore movement must have been fun. I imagine quite a lot of good shows, local bands, etc. Never even heard of Token Entry, reminds of the kinds of stuff I used to hear the older punks at skate-parks listen to. Certainly pretty raw stuff.

Hell the only one I was familiar with was Belinda Carlisle's major hit lol. 'cause at this point that's an inevitable song in American culture be it through some kind of social function, 80's radio or movie soundtracks.

>Sounds like a good era, I just heard PIL for the first time a
>couple of weeks ago, interesting sound. I'm not big on the
>punk people my age were into, mostly the 90's to early 2000's
>kind of punk. I don't know if they qualify as post-punk, or
>just straight up rock or what, but I like what I hear.
>

That era of PIL 87-on isn't too appreciated but since I got into punk from seeing the movie "Sid and Nancy" on video in 87, I was just happy Johnny Rotten was doing something then. That song kind of stuck with me ever since I heard it back then.

Most say the PIL line-up with guitarist Keith Levine and bassist Jah Wobble (the late 70's - early 80's line-up) is the best or truly post-punk and not kind of poppy like the 87-on era.

-Aquemini, I damn near missed band practice to go get, from Blockbuster Music on Bankhead, when the whole street was Bankhead. I learned how to play SpottieOttie on my trumpet before the end of practice.

-On my first long marching band competition, I copped YoungBloodZ - Against Da Grain. This girl Shana told me every song she knew I'd like, and that if I liked this CD, I should look out for her homeboy Tip that was tryin to get a deal.

-We (the band) took our spring trip to Orlando, and I copped the Cool Breeze album from some strip mall, and that shit blew my mind. I think I copped that 2nd Ginuwine album when we got back home.

-I remember copping World Party and ...And Then There Was X on the same day. 2 bad purchases, in the long run.

-My mom overbought school supplies, so when I heard this dude Travis was going to Peppermint to go get Stankonia, I gave him all of my notebook paper, lol. My sister & I trick or treated to that whole CD.

-This I'm Serious album came out in 01, and we flipped out like, "Isn't that the guy?! That's the Tip guy! He used to hang out in Cameron Crossing!"

living in Atlanta for all of that. People must have felt proud of what was going on in hip-hop with all those guys coming up. That TIP story is wild too brother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFd1oqdYuDw I still like that YoungBloodz song, that one was popping off in FL too.

>-Aquemini, I damn near missed band practice to go get, from
>Blockbuster Music on Bankhead, when the whole street was
>Bankhead. I learned how to play SpottieOttie on my trumpet
>before the end of practice.

Man we were on that album haaard and SpottieOttie, yuuup!!! MAN I wish I was at FAMU back then so I could hear them play it.


>-On my first long marching band competition, I copped
>YoungBloodZ - Against Da Grain. This girl Shana told me every
>song she knew I'd like, and that if I liked this CD, I should
>look out for her homeboy Tip that was tryin to get a deal.

We weren't into Young Bloodz much in L.A. til "Damn"

>-We (the band) took our spring trip to Orlando, and I copped
>the Cool Breeze album from some strip mall, and that shit blew
>my mind. I think I copped that 2nd Ginuwine album when we got
>back home.

I def had the Cool Breeze single on CD that had "Creatine" on it!

>-This I'm Serious album came out in 01, and we flipped out
>like, "Isn't that the guy?! That's the Tip guy! He used to
>hang out in Cameron Crossing!"

For some reason, this dude at my HS swore that T.I. was Jay-Z's artist or something like that. First time I heard the songs was when this HS club in LB played "I'm serious"...then I got to FAMU and heard "Hotel" and "Do it" played at every club in 2002.

1992-1995


the second best stretch of rap music of all time. some would say the best. period.

Junior and senior years were when I started to get really into Rawkus and similar-minded stuff.

Before that, I was into Tribe, OutKast, Pete + CL, De La, etc.

Pretty standard for someone into hip hop at that time.

~Austin

My middle school years were crazy as well from Sept 93 - June 96.

I know I may be bias but I feel that Hip-Hop was in its best years throughout my middle school and high school years.

I was actually going to make a 1996 4th Quarter (including Sept) appreciation post because I started pulling out all of those album from that time and I'm always baffled at how many quality albums came out during 1996.

1996 (first half of freshman year - I'll do '97 with my sophomore)
Ghostface Killah - Ironman
MOP - Firing Squad
Outkast - ATLiens (dropped Aug 27th so was still fresh)
The Roots - Illadelph Halflife
Jeru the Damaja - Wrath of the Math
Mobb Deep - Hell On Earth
Redman - Muddy Waters
Xzibit - At The Speed of Life
PMD - Business is Business
Pac - Makaveli
Big Noyd - Episodes of A Hustler
Keith Murray - Enigma
Snoop Dogg - Doggfather
OGC - Da Storm
and that is JUST the 4th quart releases that I can remember off hand and I know I'm missing a few. not to mention the summer gave us It Was Written, Riding Dirty, Legal Drug Money, Stakes Is High, Beats, Rhymes, & Life and more.

A few joints that sticks out to me during this time period are;

Ghostface Killah - All That I Got Is You (featuring Mary J)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJRIp2h88ZU&feature=fvst

Redman - Whateva Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdx6Z7qujIA&ob=av2e

Xzibit - Paparazzi (lost my damn mind when I first heard this joint on the radio!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5UTTHeRnZE

Mobb Deep - Hell On Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIi7J1riB2w&feature=fvst

Jeru - Ya Playin' Yourself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8e76XpXD1o

1997 - 1998 (second half of freshman year and sophomore year)
O.C. - Jewelz (summer of 97)
Royal Flush - Ghetto Millionaire
Wu-Tang - Forever
Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
AZ - Pieces of A Man
Goodie Mob - Still Standing
Capone-N-Noreaga - The War Report
Biggie - Life After Death
Scarface - Untouchable
Rakim - The 18th Letter
Jay-Z - Vol. 1
Camp Lo - Uptown Saturday Night
Organized Konfusion - Equinox
Cru - Da Dirty 30
Artifacts - That's Them
Common - One Day It'll All Make Sense
Beatnuts - Stone Crazy
Alkaholiks - Likwidation
Diamond D - Hatred, Passions, & Infidelities
Tracey Lee - Many Facez
DMX - It's Dark and hell Is Hot
Big Pun - Capital Punishment
Lox - Money, Power, & Respect
DJ Muggs - Soul Assassins
Onyx - Shut Em Down
Black Star - Black Star

a few stand out joints were;

O.C. - Far From Yours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_dusKFTN_U

Gang Starr - Royalty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnOw4J1pFN8

Wu-Tang - Triumph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isumZjs3dKA

Common - Reminding Me (Of Sef)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQfq62N_Jxs

Black Star - Definition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx5aVI2zsFE

1998-1999 (Junior year)
Pete Rock - Soul Survivor
L-Boogie - Miseducation (summer of 98)
Xzibit - 40 Dayz & 40 Nights (summer of 98)
Outkast - Aquemini
MOP - First Family 4 Life (summer of 98)
La The Darkman - Heist of the Century
DJ Quik - Rhythm-al-ism
Brand Nubian - Foundation
Nas - I Am
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves
Busta Rhymes - ELE

a few joints from this year are ;

Nas - Nas Is Like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC4ORS5n9Hg&ob=av2e

Pete Rock - Tru Master (feat Deck & Kurupt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juv-BZgqoRk

Outkast - Rosa Parks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjRPBrmu1WQ

Xzibit - What U See Is What U Get
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3UZyqmxFBA

Busta Rhymes - Gimme Some Mo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2asIbbS9aQ&feature=fvst

1999-2000 (Senior year)
Dr Dre - Chronic 2001
Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
Mobb Deep - Murda Muzik
P Monch - Internal Affairs
Meth & Red - Blackout!
Common - Like Water For Chocolate
Slum Village - Fantastic Vol 2
Ghostface - Supreme Clientele
Kweli & Hi-Tek - Train of Thought
Dead Prez - Let's Get Free
Zion I - Mind Over Matter
Eminem - Marshall Mathers LP
DITC - Worldwide

few joints;

Common - The Sixth Sense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTGxPiEg7iM

Mobb Deep - Quiet Storm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvCp-N-9JEw

Red & Meth - Da Rockwilder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLcRMqKOzqM

Dr Dre - Still Dre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCoski5rTR4&feature=fvst

P Monch - Simon Says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Fy5w2klbg

damn, I know I left something out too LOL!

Well at least your potential bias does have some reason to it lol. There's no denying that a shit ton of influential/classic albums dropped in that era.

There's a couple I'm going to have to go back to. Being my age, I'm familiar with the artists that lasted long and/or the universally approved. By that I mean like Nas, Mos Def, Big Punisher, 2Pac, Wu-Tang and Common.

I mean I come from a generation more familiar with Xzibit as the Pimp My Ride host than anything else. I mean I remember liking him on The Marshall Mathers LP and liking that "X" single. Past that I'm not familiar and assumed he was always corny lol. Paparazzi is definitely dope.

Same with Redman, I'm used to him and Method Man doing the corny stoner thing. I can see by songs like "Whateva Man" and people citing him as an Eminem Influence that he has straight up rap skills too.

An excellent era to come up in and I can tell a lot of it is lyrically/technically driven, so I see where your emphasis on MCing comes from.

it feels a bit novelty, zhu zhu zhaaang zhu zhu zhuuu zhu zhaaaang LMAO

i remember trading CDs and ZIP disks (yes, really) of a lot of IDM (the warp records roster: aphex twin, autechre, boards of canada, squarepusher, etc., as well as mu-ziq and amon tobin), some more general "electronica" like moby, fluke, fila brazillia, coil, and massive attack, as well as post-rock like mogwai and godspeed, older rock like neil young, the beatles, they might be giants, and my bloody valentine, and as far as hip-hop, common, 2pac, the roots, and mos def come to mind. some of my classmates liked cash money and slip-n-slide, but i didn't get into it. my friends and i enjoyed outkast, wu-tang, the clash, radiohead, portishead, NIN, and dj shadow. one particular friend played some death metal as well as ratt ("ironically") in his car on our way to community service every week. a few of us were into jazz, so i started off with some miles davis, namely 'bitches brew' and 'kind of blue.'

so those of who were traded freshly downloaded albums/EPs on ZIP disks with those of us still on dialup, so you might get an album and an EP on one ZIP disk, save it, and then maybe load up something new and trade it back to the lender. it would've taken a lot longer to download on dialup even after locating the files (largely pre-napster).

Gotdamn AudioGalaxy.

I was still in middle school in the dial up days. I think I was in sixth grade maybe. I remember getting like one song per day as they took like 30 minutes or more to finish. I'd get an album track by track. I didn't know anything about bitrates back then either so it was all over the place as far as quality goes.

Not only was DSL and Cable not that popular yet (I'd say maybe 1 out of every 5 households among my friends) but I don't think any of us would have been crafty enough to share ZIP disks.

it's just that with electronic music, my friends who were into it also happened to be computer nerds, so it worked out for me since i was on dialup.

91 - 95

Just before going into grade 9 I was obsessed with Metallica and thrash metal. Also like hip hop like NWA, Public Enemy. Also like alot of punk rock like DRI, Sex pistols, the clash. Also into alternative like Fishbone, The Smiths. I played alot of guitar with distortion pedals.

Beginning of grade 9 Metallica released the black album and became really popular. Being my snobby, elitist self I dropped them like a bad habit. Nirvana released Nevermind and all of a sudden me and my circle of friends were 'cool' cause we looked like them.

Changed schools in grade 10 and met a new group of musician friends that were primarily into funk and disco (and lots of hash). Became obsessed with Parliament/Funkadelic. We started a funk/disco cover band. The Brand New Heavies 'Heavy Rhyme Experience' was huge for us cause we started working with rappers overtop our instrumentals after hearing it. Saw the Roots on the 'DYWM' tour and decided we better do something else cause we weren't gonna top that. We released a record that was pretty damn god for 14/15 year olds and played as a novelty act at a couple jazz/blues festivals.

Grade 11 we started listening to a radio show in Toronto called Vibes n stuff that introduced us to rare groove/soul-jazz/latin music and record collecting. We started focusing more on sample-based hip hop production in the vein of native tongues with instruments scattered about.

By Grade 12 I wasn't listening to much funk or disco anymore. Alot more jazz oriented stuff. Stopped listening to rock/alternative altogether but still checked out alot of hip hop. Through all that I still had an appreciation for everything though. But I had the hip hop record collector bug and was mostly focused on that kinda thing.

Crazy how fast teenagers aesthetic appreciations change over such a short period of time.

High School..........man....1990-1994.........NWA, Rakim, KRS, Tribe, De La, Nas, Biggie, Pac, Ghetto Boys, Outkast debut....lord jesus...some great times...I played EPMD daily!!!

I went to high-school in 91-94 (=between 16 and 19) and also came from a background in stuff like thrash and hardcore (in my case it was also freakier shit like Death metal and grindcore) and dug Hip-Hop since the LL/Run DMC days even if it wouldn't take over my life until the 90's-metal, punk and more abrasive/noisy "indie" (think:the amphetamine reptile label stuff) was my main course before that. Just like you, I also got enarmored with the acid jazz thing in my highschool years and it led me to 70's funk and soul.




Anyway, the highschool years was the most important years in my life for me musically because I lost all my friends and didn't make any new ones so my entire life pretty much revolved around music (and comic-books and late-night porn on cable).

Before going to highschool, I had went to the same school for nine years and pretty much saw the same faces every day and those were my friends and a VERY tight-knit group of people. My "role" in this clique was that of the music nerd and it had been like that since as far as I can remember.

When I started highschool, none of my old friends got into this school so I was alone and the people in this new school were all from wealthy suburbs and were into sailing, raves and shit like that. I on the other hand was strictly urban middle class gothenburg and I think I knew within one week that these guys would never be my friends so I instead sunk into myself and focused strictly on music nerdery.

In retrospect, my life then may seem pathetic but I remember that I was VERY happy and felt freer than I ever felt before; I finally had the time to TOTALLY indulge in my main love.

When I started college, I made friends again and got into girls and partying so music was never as OTT important again even if it has remained my main interest...

Late night cable porn? We never had that shit!

But I probably don't talk enough about the roots around here. Huge for me when I was in grade 10. They didn't play funk music with rapping overtop....they actually played hip hop. And there's noone else that I'm aware of that did that before them.

Part of it was trying to play your instrument like it was looping. Part of it was 're-contextualizing' the instrument....ie one harmonic note with a volume swell every 2 bars and done. So part of it was being somewhat minimalist. Playing your instrument from the perspective of a 'sampler'. It's hard to describe....but I fashioned myself as a 'hip hop guitar player' after being exposed to them. And they shown me a philosophy that still informs the way I play now.

At the time, high school here was 10th -12th grade, so that's late Aug. 1995 through May 1998, age fifteen through eighteen.

Some stuff around that time was listening to heavily incl. Zappa, Outkast, Wu-tang, Bjork, Aphex Twin, Ween, Prince, Ministry, Mr. Bungle, Ice-T, Afghan Whigs, Dinosaur Jr, Pharcyde, Marvin Gaye, Velvet Underground, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, but a lot of that I had started listening to pre-high school. I did start following 'paths' more closely though, e.g. Zappa leading to Dolphy to Mingus, Zappa to Varese and Webern, Ministry to Dead Kennedys via Lard, Bowie to Eno to John Cage, which then could connect back to something like Aphex Twin, etc., so was beginning to make connections and think about that a little more, MTV or BET weren't my only sources anymore.

(edit: I also recall very late in that period starting to order music that I had never heard anything by, just because I had read about it and was interested, which was also a significant development --- Serge Gainsbourg, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, and the Japanese shibuya-kei stuff come to mind.)

Freshman year (98-99): Most of us were on No Limit hard, as well as Ruff Ryders. I actually had two CD cases to go with my (brand new 40 sec shock proof Sony) CD Walkman. One case was ALL No Limit CD's, other was everything else. Some CD's I was into that year:
Ice Cube - War n Peace Vol 1
Mack 10 - The Recipe
Master P - Da Last don (came out in 8th grade)
DMX - Flesh of my flesh
Ruff Ryders - RR Vol. 1
E-40 - The element of surprise
Timbaland - Tim's bio
Outkast - Aquemini
DJ Quik - Rhythmalism
Jay-Z - Vol 2. (really just to hear Jigga what Jigga who, that track was amazing to me then)
Rush Hour 2 sdtk
Eminem - Slim Shady LP
Snoop Dogg - Top Dogg (I remember fast forwarding to Mystikal's verse when I saw the tracklist on the song "Ghetto symphony" and WHOO SHIT MOTHAFUCKA GOT DAMN!!! we thought that verse was the shit!!!!)
Nas - I am (I think folks at my HS still liked Nas more than Jay at this point)

Sophomore year: Cash Money was coming in strong, but I saw them as a fake No Limit. However, I was impressed by Wayne's verses on 400 Degreez and bought "The Block is hot." However, I started to become more into RR than No Limit. Some CD's I was on....
Suga Free & Mausberg - Konnectid
Warren G - I want it all
Lil Wayne - The Block is hot
Kurupt - Streetz is a mutha
Dr. Dre - 2001
DJ Quik - Balance & Options
DMX - And then there was X
Eve - Ruff Ryders First lady
Drag-On - Whatever that shit was called
Funk Flex and Big Kap - The tunnel (shit was great)
Eminem - MMLP
Snoop Dogg Presents: Tha Eastsidaz
Nas - Nastradamus bootleg (Lost tapes now)

Junior year: I started driving, and because the West brought back a lot of heat, I'd say 90% of everything I played that year was West Coast. I still remember the day I heard Eastsidaz "I luv it"....it was on radio, and I missed the 1st two verses, but I said "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!!!!!!!!!" It was back when radio played songs before you could find the MP3, so I only found the Real player version 2 weeks later, and then heard the homie play it in his car a month later. That ended up being the best song ever made in history. Not really, but EVERYBODY in L.A. was blastin that shit the entire year. And I remember how shady (but funny) Suge was for the whole "Dead man walking" by leaking Tha Last meal in CDQ MP3 on Deathrow.com, while putting the DMW album up in shitty Real player so folks could buy it. Production wise, felt like Battlecat was runnin shit for us, along with Fred Wreck.
Albums....
Bad Azz - Personal Business
Snoop Dogg Presents: Doggy's Angels
Kurupt - Space Boogie (and !!!!!!! the first time I heard "On on site" that summer going to work, I literally started laughin when the harpsichord came in)
Jay-Z - The dynasty (Change the game was great, and that remix was !!!!! with DPG on it)
Snoop Dogg - Tha Last meal
DPG 2002
Outkast - Stankonia (and yeah, I'll call before I cum was a BANGER to everybody who had beat in their car)
Musiq Soulchild - Ijuswannasing (one of the only R&B albums I was into)

Senior Year: Might have been the wackest year musically. Half the time, I was just playing individual songs...shit like "Doo rags" on MP3 since it was the high speed download era, and we could just get random songs like it was nothing. Funniest/wildest moment was the homie Greg callin me saying "AYYYY TURN ON THE RADIO!!!!! NAS IS KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLIN JAY-Z ON THIS NEW SONG!!!!!!!!!" and I turned on and heard Ether, which they played like 5 times in a row.
Albums....
The Wash sdtk
Jay-Z - Blueprint
Jimmy Bones sdtk
Timbaland and Magoo - Risky business
DJ Quik - Under tha influence (really the bootleg that had the original 50 ways and Come 2nyte on it)
Snoop Dogg - Paid the cost to be the boss (Bootleg version, there were actually two of them)
Nas - Stillmatic

I feel like the baby of the bunch on this one lol. No Limit was huge in Florida around the time I first got into any music at all (5th grade).

I remember listening to Master P's Ghetto D (clean version, not cause my parents were strict, but because I didn't know to look for the PA sticket yet haha) every morning before school. I was playing some Final Fantasy game for SNES, I think it was Mystic Quest. I'd turn down the volume, bump some Master P and have a good time lol.

I remember back then little divisions in taste showed among friends for the first time.

I hated sentimental, R and Bish shit back then. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate it.

Thus I hated this song, while my brothers loved it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVxKEs1dm0U

Now this one was my shit back then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IslH1Ue1Alg

The No Limit Thing was wild in the south, interesting it was popping out west too. Like to put it in perspective, the town I lived in, back then was like 99% white. Really that's no exaggeration, I'm Puerto Rican and I remember in my entire elementary school experience, there was maybe 15 black kids in the whole school, maybe 20 hispanics, out of like 600+ kids.

Not only am I talking white, but I'm talking an area loaded with poor whites (of the southern variety, rednecks if we're going to forget about political correctness lol). So in this case, we're talking about the children of like alcoholic, white southern mechanics hearing "Make em say Ugh" on the radio then spending the next 2-3 years picking up every No Limit release they could get their hands on. Pre-internet.

Wild, fun era.

Dope post yo....i was freshman in 96 and i was still waving the wutang flag proudly! But i was extremly turned off by lame upperclassmen that thought they were the all knowledgeble when it came to hip hop. So i slowed down on the wu a bit( still supported wutang forever and ghost's ironman of course) and really got into Mystik Journeymen of the Living Legends crew. My friends and I lived just over an hour from Oakland and these guys had the area on fire!!! This was before everyone had the internet so it was all word of mouth still( so grateful i got live through word of mouth and cassettes being swapped).

Other notable albums that really blew me away during those years
Things fall apart(shit fucked my head up! Listened to so so so much!)
Moment of truth( i remember being disgusted with A Primo interview where he talked about using kc and jojo for a track. Wtf Primo!!? Then i coppex the album andheard royalty!!! That shit was bananas and became 1 of my favs off the lp)

Third eye vision
Stakes is high
Beats ryhmes and life
Aquemini
Chronic 2001
Lots of good memories got stirred up with this post...thanks homez.

Shit that CD is when I first saw OKP...too bad I didn't come until 8 years later

(1988 - 1992)

The summer before freshman year, I went with my cousins to the KMEL Summer Jam. The headliners were Paula Abdul, NKOTB, Milli Vanilli, and Tone Loc.. except Tone Loc flaked (supposedly he was sick) so Too $hort came through and shut that muthafucka down... Very unexpected considering they hardly played his shit on KMEL at that time. Other folks on the bill included The Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince Tony Terry, Afro-Rican, Sweet Sensation, Troop, Tony Toni Tone, Run DMC, Martika, Safire, Tommy Paige, Flame, etc..

NE Heartbreak came out the year before or around that time (not sure) but it still got plenty of play.. That shit was musical crack to those of us who grew up on MJ for some reason.

I remember Tone Loc being the shit that summer. Also, MC Hammer was always big amongst most of the kids.. Bobby Brown, too. The fall was all about The D.O.C.'s "No One Can Do It Better" and Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock's "It Takes Two" (one of the biggest singles of all time). I remember starting to get into Prince again.. I grew up to his shit when I was young watching Purple Rain and hanging out with older cousins, but I think the Batman shit and watching Sign o The Times on cable really got me into his shit even though my peers were not really on that tip at the time.

I think Operation: Desert Storm was going on around the time of my freshman year.

the next four years were a musical blur.. Most of the guys at our school who liked rap were into NWA, Ice T, 2 Live Crew, Ice Cube, Shy D, Too $hort, etc.. My rocker buds were into Guns, Metallica, etc.. hiphop and rock kids both started getting into Bob Marley. My cousin got me into UB40.

I remember buying Mantronix "This Should Move Ya", Redhead Kingpin and the FBI, and Wrecks n Effect's first tape.. That New Jack Swing song was the first time I started putting things together in my head as far as the producer's role and how different acts were connected (Teddy Riley talking about how he had Boy George, B Brown, Guy, Al B, etc..)

Around this time, I thought Vanessa Williams was the finest woman on the planet.. Cindy Crawford, too.

It wasn't cool for a dude to be into Madonna at the time, but I loved watching her videos for Express Yourself era around this time.. Also, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation was what every female was all about.

Saucy dudes (myself included) liked Troop, Guy, BBD, Boyz II Men, Jodeci, En Vogue, etc.. One hit wonders like "Helluva", "Ditty" by Paperboy, etc.. When we started driving, we bumped Naughty By Nature's first one, Cypress Hill's first one, Black Sheep's first one, X-Clan's, LONS', etc.. my other friends thought that shit was for nerds and wanna be New York style kids.. They were more into Mac Dre, E-40 and the Click, Totally Insane, Dre Dog, IMP, etc.. it rubbed off on me, but I was also into the soft shit like Kwame, PM Dawn and Dream Warriors, but I also liked Paris and P.E.. the artsy kids in my art classes liked shit like The Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, etc..

I liked reading about music in those free mags you would get at the music store.. I was into Digital Underground, Tony Toni Tone, and Del the Funkee out of local cats.

DJ Quik, AMG, Second II None, and Geto Boys were big amongst my friends, but I didn't really get into them until later..

High energy dance music was big amongst Filipinos and Mexicans. Mobile DJ Groups were big in the bay and mixed high energy, hiphop, pop, r&b, new wave, etc.. breaking/strutting/popping/bboying was making a comeback under the guise of "housing" or new school hiphop dance movement.. Raves were getting popular in early 90's but I wasn't a part of that scene. I did like some house styled remixes of r&b and hip-house videos on Yo! I loved that Lidell Townsell single "Nu Nu" as well as Jomanda.. couldn't stand Snap! Hated Teknotronic, but I dug Neneh Cherry.

Tracie Spencer should have been a lot bigger than she was.

A lot of this stuff is way out of order, but whatever.. Oh yeah, during senior year I really got into the whole Philly and Chitown sound.. I borrowed that 4xLP they used to sell on TV.. "Hey Love" from a DJ buddy.. and I was hooked on the Chi-Lites, Delphonics, Stylistics, etc.. Also, loved hearing EW&F "Reasons (live)" on the radio and Lenny's "Ain't Over til It's Over" as well as The 5 Heartbeats soundtrack.


White Bronco.

I remember he had a seizure at a Laker game I was at back in 96

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-05-19/local/me-3420_1_rapper-tone-loc - it was 95

alot of hiphop and alternative with a touch of techno
all the good 90's stuff
pretty self explanatory on this one

No Limit dominated, along with Ruff Ryders and Cash Money

Can't lie, I rode the bus to school most of my time in high school so on the bus I always had my headphones on and.......what I had in my cd player wasn't what everybody else was listening to lol.

All the usual suspects from Tribe to Wu, Nas to Company Flow, Freddie Foxxx to all that Rawkus stuff. Pete Rock. Premier. ETC.

I remember one time I wast listening to Jeru the Damaja and someone on the bus asked:

"What are you listening to?".

"Jeru....".

"Ja Rule?"

"No, Jeru the Damaja."

"Who? Is he new?" (*confused expression*)

"Naw, he's been around. This is his second album...." (*me growing annoyed cuz I KNOW what's coming next*)

"Never heard of him!" (*dismissive tone*)

Hahaha.

And this is basically how high school went for me, with people either not knowing the artists OR wondering why I was listening to some "East Coast sh*t" down in South Carolina.

Of course, I had a few friends/associates who listened to what I did or at least some of it. One dude was REALLY into BCC.......and that was it! Not much Wu or Nas or Mobb Deep, but ALL of BCC's albums lol. Always found that bizarre.



__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

>And this is basically how high school went for me, with people
>either not knowing the artists OR wondering why I was
>listening to some "East Coast sh*t" down in South Carolina.

I was in SC in the "Nick has a problem..." era, albeit further south. the cats I were around not only knew those cats but actually brought them out when they had a new video on BET or MTV...

but I do remember that when Master Pee came along I had started to hit the EJECT button on rap music for a minute.

so it's good to see some really thoughtful responses still coming in.

High school was grades 10-12, fall 1987 - spring 1990.

The school was about 1,000 kids in suburban Philadelphia, so you're going to get typical cliques and musical subcultures you'll see in stereotypical teem high school movies. The punks, the hippies, the goths, the rockers, the proto-indie kids. Hip hop was relatively small (like the school's non-white population) except as a part of the overall pop music scene (ie, hits like Wild Thing), at least until Fear of a Black Planet our last spring. The big picture is probably summed up best by thinking about the songs I remember from the relatively few high school dances I went to:
-Safety Dance
-It's The End of the World As We Know It
-Boys Don't Cry
-and the theme to our prom, for some reason? Fool In the Rain. Bizarre.

Classic rock was sort of a common denominator; the radio format was fairly young at that point but it was rare to find someone who didn't like at least something that would qualify. This got a boost from some of the teachers, and also from the fact that a lot of the old bands were doing their first round of comeback reunion tours around that time - the Allmans, the Moody Blues, the Who, Skynyrd, etc. One teacher actually loaned me records by Barry McGuire and the Mamas & Papas.

The most interesting crossover effect was between the punks and the hippies. I think most of it stemmed from the fact that they were the two groups most likely to be smoking (tobacco) in the Breezeway, the sanctioned smoking (with signed parental permission - how rebellious!) area. At any rate, plenty of the hippies were converted punk fans, so there was a much greater than expected appreciation for a variety of sounds from both groups. I remember playing in school for the first time in like fall 1988, and the crowd was making a ton of noise - acoustic performances from students were pretty much unheard of at that point - and Mike Conway, one of the main punk dudes walked out, turned on a mic, and told the audience to shut the fuck up or get out to the lobby. It was awesome.

Goth was pretty small, even though some of the stereotypical Goth bands were fairly popular. I only really knew about it because of this one super cute Goth chick named Melissa Cunningham. She had the pale skin and red lips, but was unstereotypically happy, flirty, and nice. No idea what she listened to though!

The indie crowd was mostly based around kids who'd switched over from prep schools, I guess, where the connection to what was then called 'college rock' was stronger. REM was the biggest band, but there were other acts like Camper Van Beethoven, Guadalcanal Diary, etc. that had their fans. My favorite was fIREHOSE, whom I got hipped to by a skater buddy in the marching band. I was skeptical, but he played Ragin' Full On and I was hooked on first listen. Around senior year bands like Cowboy Junkies, Hothouse Flowers, and 10,000 Maniacs all came out to subtle acclaim and had their share of fans.

The main stuff that I was into kinda grew out of my fascination with acoustic rock, esp. CSN/Y. I'd also discovered my folks' record collection a few years earlier and devoured all the Weavers and Kingston Trio, Belafonte and Makeba records along with the Byrds and Beatles. I listened to Philadelphia's folk radio show and started going to folk shows and festivals. AFKAP has joked about me rolling up to parties blasting the McGarrigle Sisters, and there's some truth to it (though not THAT much.) That wasn't exactly popular but I found a lot of people appreciated what I was into b/c either their parents were into it, or b/c they'd never been exposed to it at all. By the time I graduated though Tracy Chapman and Indigo Girls had broken nationally, so there was a much wider recognition that the stuff I was into and playing wasn't just some fringe hippy shit (even though everyone thought I was a major toker).

Pop fans were an interesting bunch because pop still covered a very wide spectrum of influences. Hip hop began making inroads, but what I remember most were the tail end of hair metal. The girl I dated for most of Jr. and Sr. year loved... Aerosmith. The new shit, too, Crazy and Love in an Elevator and shit, not the stuff from the '70s. And Madonna... Express Yourself and everything was huge. She made fun of me for listening to Indigo Girls (until they got popular). When REM went major label they were really big. Overall though I paid pop very little attention at the time.

The metal scene was pretty strong. Most of the guys in it had graduated from hair stuff - Def Leppard was big when we were in Jr. High, and Yngwie Malmsteen and Bon Jovi to Metallica and Megadeth. Tee shirts that needed to be covered went from 'Bon Jovi rocks your ASS off!' (Jon Greenauer wore his jean jacket all day the day after that show, but kept flashing the back of the shirt to show how cool he was) to 'METAL UP YOUR ASS' (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/46/frontmetallica.jpg/sr=1) by high school.

Interestingly, my high school years produced two relatively important musicians:
-Gregg Foreman, who became a downtown popular soul DJ and also led the first garage-blues act Delta 72, though they unfortunately didn't last long enough to cash in. I remember him doing a variety of things in high school, from performing a cover of 'shoot that poison arrow' in an all-synth band (anathema to me at the time, sadly) to playing bass in one of the few live hip hop performances the school had (most of the variety shows featured a rapper, but rapping over tapes rather than tables). Last I heard Gregg was successfully recovering from heroin problems, doing some acoustinc side projects, and playing for Cat Power. I've been tempted to try to catch up with him but never have.
-Brian Chippendale, I think aka Black Pus, of Lightning Bolt, who was a year behind me. I remember him having a super mullet and wearing shirts from either the Cult or the Church, whom I conflate for some reason. I think he might have been in marching band but don't remember him there for sure like I do on JV soccer at the same time. Interestingly I don't remember him ever playing in bands or at variety shows or anything like that.

Overall, I had friends all over the place, musically, and absorbed from each of them. Some sounds (hip hop, anything synth) wouldn't grow on me for a few years after HS graduation, but for the most part I'm pretty proud of the way I developed and feel like I sort of carved out my own place.

Signed permission to smoke? That's hilarious.

I literally pictured you staring off into space reminiscing about Melissa Cunningham. hohoho.

Kinda surprised to see you mention Cowboy Junkies. I thought they were more a Canadian thing unknown over there. I LOVE them. Havent' seen anyone mention them here before yah....great band....great guitar player...great sound on their records.

Also got a laugh about the 'Bon jovi rocks your ass off' thing.

About Aerosmith...my appreciation for them has actually grown as time has gone on. Never really liked them but I've realized that the drummer is awesome. He can do alot of different types of rhythm and got a really good swing. I took my daughter to Disneyworld last summer and we had to wait for 2 hours for the Aerosmith ride....listening to their music the whole time. It dawned on me how versatile they are.

>Signed permission to smoke? That's hilarious.

yeah. Wonder how much longer that lasted after I graduated? The school went to four years within two or three years, so that may have sounded the death knell for the Breezeway Bums.

>I literally pictured you staring off into space reminiscing
>about Melissa Cunningham. hohoho.

It's funny that I probably haven't thought of her since 1990, but was able to remember the name instantly. Meanwhile I can't remember names of close friends from the late '90s.

>Kinda surprised to see you mention Cowboy Junkies. I thought
>they were more a Canadian thing unknown over there. I LOVE
>them. Havent' seen anyone mention them here before
>yah....great band....great guitar player...great sound on
>their records.

No, found out about them from the same friend I heard Billy Bragg, Ocean Blue, etc. from. And they were reasonably popular here, never huge, but far from unknown. Their biggest audience probably came from the then-developing AAA radio format.

>Also got a laugh about the 'Bon jovi rocks your ass off'
>thing.

Oh, I STILL laugh about it regularly.

>About Aerosmith...my appreciation for them has actually grown
>as time has gone on. Never really liked them but I've
>realized that the drummer is awesome. He can do alot of
>different types of rhythm and got a really good swing. I took
>my daughter to Disneyworld last summer and we had to wait for
>2 hours for the Aerosmith ride....listening to their music the
>whole time. It dawned on me how versatile they are.

Cock rock was one of those things that for me, at the time, worked in its older/70s forms but not the updated 80s versions. I still feel that way more or less, I guess, though I see a lot more humor in cock rock across the boards than I did then. Aerosmith does have some jams, though.

I woudln't call them the first bluesy garage-band (Jon Spencer's various projects came before and there were some other ones as well like the Gibson Brothers) but they were more "rootsy" than the norm. Dope band no doubt

some girl at my school even got him to come to our prom as her date

d

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body. But rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up,totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming .... WOW what a ride." — Mark Frost

At first it was:

Nu-metal, a la Korn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, P.O.D., etc.
Puff & the Family
Eminem
Jay-Z
Dr. Dre's 2001
Emergence of pop via radio and TRL (NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera)

Then I discovered...

Rahzel's Make the Music 2000
The Roots
Talib Kweli
Mos Def
Common
'Old-school' hip hop
The hip hop classics, like Illmatic, Ready to Die, All Eyez, etc
Indie Rock
Kind of indie, but pop rock, like Coldplay

was the first kind of rock I ever liked lol. I think it might have been the hip-hop elements in it as far the delivery, lyrics and all that went.

Being Puerto Rican, I didn't get exposed to the most popular American music through my parents. Instead of soul, r and b, what's now considered classic rock, folk or country, My father played salsa all day in the car and at home. So at that time I was exposed to stuff like Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon, Ruben Blades and the like. Though strangely enough, my dad did know a little bit of breakdancing moves and really loved Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight. The majority of major hits in the states also received play in Puerto Rico.

My mother, though also fond of Spanish music, really loved to dance. It's for this reason that she would always play rap/pop radio and didn't care for rock. She loved songs like "Me So Horny" 'cause of the beat and because it was danceable, she never know what the words were lol. She thought "Me so horny" was saying "Me so homey" (apparently she noticed "homey" in a lot of rap songs) until my brothers and I explained it when we were older.

So through hearing my moms radio choices, I grew to love mainstream rap and pop (between the ages of like 5-10) and hated rock. That all changed when Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Korn came out.

From there I stayed interested in rock and went on to a lot of emo stuff in my younger teenage days (Saves The Day, Brand New, Jimmy Eat World, American Football, etc.).

Finally progressing into the present any kind of rock days, although it's a bit more indie rock than anything else.

Hip hop was gooood right about then. 1989-1992? Couldn't tell us shit. And while I love the Native Tongues, the Juice Crew, BDP, PE, Gangstarr, etc, one album always, always, ALWAYS will be my theme music:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VKQTYWXJL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Big Tyme was the shit. Yes it was part of the whole New Jack Swing movement (and say what you will about it, but for a while it ran shit and wasn't really that corny!). Yes it came with it's own pair of patent leather shoes. Yes you had to wear a polka dot shirt with it. But dammit, that album kicked so much ass...

http://youtu.be/x6JT1-P5lmQ

http://youtu.be/I2fS9XtWemY

http://youtu.be/OYmxbydg1BI


Shit, people these days don't even remember what T.R.O.Y. was even for anymore. RIP Trouble T


A personal favorite dropped a few weeks into sophomore year, and STILL gets bumped on a regular basis:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/Eyes_on_This.jpg

To this day, I could give a fuck if Lyte wrote her rhymes or didn't (I'm in the camp that says she did), this shit was straight fire. She could fuck up a mic without taking her damn clothes off. Fuck Kim, fuck Foxy, Fuck Nicki. None of them can touch this album. Ever. Word....

http://youtu.be/HpSeJP2HfaY

http://youtu.be/qhW_ph0ipp8


Before junior year started Mr. Smith dropped an album that redeemed him from all the bullshit that came with Walking With a Panther. Probably my favorite LL album (though Bigger and Deffer would probably like a word with me about that)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/be/Mama_Said_Knock_You_Out_-_LL_Cool_J.jpg

Aside from the cover for the girls, the only thing I didn't care for was 'The Power Of God', which if I remember correctly, when I dubbed the tape I replaced that with The Boomin System underground mix, which I liked much better than the album version. And no I can't explain the video for it either. Pass the Heineken and mind ya business... Eat Em Up L banged like shit, To Da Break Of Dawn was unnecessary, but banged, and Cheesy Rat Blues is probably one of the best songs Mr. Smith penned in his life. LL never came better than this one

http://youtu.be/zgRbVVgz8AU

http://youtu.be/hTPk1LgJvYY

http://youtu.be/xU5lQsV0L6s

http://youtu.be/UshlbpBopbc


In my junior year we had a mentoring program where we got the chance to go to some of the elementary and middle schools to talk to the kids (afrocentricity was HUGE back then). I was assigned with one of the seniors to go to my old elementary school. When we left, I popped this in the tape deck of his Calalier (nobody was ballin' in '91...)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tIT2wS_lHjw/Td4TJ_NduzI/AAAAAAAAB_g/bYWLeWJLQL8/s1600/ed.jpg

Let me just say, I love this album. LOVE IT. The Mission was some of the dopest shit on the radio. I'm The Magnificent (remix) was straight fire (and gave Theo a chance to direct a video, which was big back then). Ya Wish Ya Could is an underrated gem. And let me tell you, nothing felt better than pulling out of Suitland High School's parking lot blasting this:

http://youtu.be/3umYMYuoFwM

http://youtu.be/sHCWMkKAkUs

http://youtu.be/x20-9rXOzGE

dance if you were a dude, especially in L.A. We could Crip walk, Penn State, n that was about it until the whole Clown dance thing came, n I was 2-3 years too old to get into that.

It was some fun shit. If you were in LA, that shit probably wouldn't get much run.

Forgot to post my King Tee shit too. I may be east coast 4 life and all, but I had love for Tela since Act a Fool

I mean folks were def into New Edition/BBD, Heavy D, Portrait, Guy, all of that...but I don't think the dudes were really DANCIN to the NJS songs like they did on The East. It was probably a class thing too...the hood dudes didn't, but the Westside/flashy types who weren't bangin were probably trying to be Kane's background dancers

title track Big Tyme is a monster & introduced me to Pete Rock production genius

I was in high school from 1997-2001. Back then, we used to debate if Lil' Wayne was the WORST rapper alive. Now, people act like he's the best. WTF?

He still makes me wish Turk hadn't fucked himself with legal issues.

And he DAMN SURE wasn't the worst at the time. Annoying voice, weird style? Yeah, but you could hear the potential in him back then. Had a catchy ass flow and a solid presence, especially to be young.

even though that was 10-14 years ago, all hear/think when he raps/talks is "wabba-dee-wabba-dee, wa-wa-wabba-dee-wabba-dee". It's like a kid peeing his pants in front of everyone in middle school - in my mind he will NEVER live that shit down.

So, high school for us started at 10th grade, so 87-90

-I remember me and my girlfriend in dead silence on the phone when Rap City showed "It's Funky Enough" for the first time

-I remember hating "Doowhatchalike" when I first heard it, but losing my shit when the album came out (Freaks of the Industry??? woooyy!)

-I remember banging Kool Moe Dee in the ride before the high school dances..

-Tuff Crew......Tuff Crew....Tuff Crew...

-Being introduced to the Electric Slide at the college parties

-Going to the Rhythm Nation tour

-Going to the Lovesexy tour

-Follow the Leader...damn...

-Leaving school to get The Great Adventures of Slick Rick and By All Means Necessary..

....I could go on and on...









for house goodness:

http://djrsenalsopenhouse.podOmatic.com

ahhh, why the hell not:
www.myspace.com/thedjrsenal
www.twitter.com/djrsenal

Ended with The Documentary, Carter II and Late Registration.

Some of y'all old.

I was mostly into previewing all the Prince bootleg cds and boxsets in high school.....that was when they were still selling Prince bootlegs in some record shops here in atlanta,ga

The Beatnuts - Street Level
MC Eiht - We Come Strapped
Nas - Illmatic
OutKast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda